The Celebration of the Gospel
August 4 , 2019 — 8th Sunday after Pentecost
Since you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.
—Colossians 3.1
________ We Gather as the Body of Christ______
GREETING
PRELUDE
[As we listen to the music we quiet our minds and bodies,
listen for our hearts’ deepest desires,
and become present to the Holy One who is lovingly present for us.]
* CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: Creating God, you breathed life into us, and made us yours.
All: Our breath is yours.
Loving Christ, you heal us, guide us, and give yourself to us.
Our blood is yours.
Holy Spirit, you pulse through us with the energy of your love.
The fire in our eyes is yours.
We worship you with our silence and our voices, our presence and our lives.
* SONG – We Sing to You, O God – Black hymnal # 2001
____________ We Attend to the Word__________
THE WORD IN SONG
PRAYER
God of love, in this complicated life we cling to many things. Release our grip on all that Stuff. Give us grace to let go, to be present here with you, to listen for your Word, and to receive your grace. We pray in the name and the company of Jesus. Amen.
HEBREW BIBLE – Hosea 11.1-9
God is angry at Israel like a mother whose child has rebelled. She has cruel thoughts…but in her compassion she loves us anyway.]
When Israel was a child, I loved them,
and out of Egypt I called my child.
The more I called them, the more they went from me;
they kept sacrificing to other gods,
and offering incense to idols.
Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them up in my arms;
but they did not know that I healed them.
I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love.
I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks.
I bent down to them and fed them.
Oh, I want to send them back to the land of Egypt,
and make Assyria their king,
because they have refused to return to me.
Violence rages in their cities,
it consumes their oracle-priests,
and devours because of their schemes.
My people are bent on turning away from me.
To a god they call the Most High they cry,
but he does not raise them up at all.
But how can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
I will not execute my fierce anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and no mortal,
the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.
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NEW TESTAMENT – Colossians 3.1-11
[We’re not just near God; with Christ we are within God. ”You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul encourages us to trust this, let go of our greed and self-serving, and let go of the distractions of our fears and desires, and put our minds on “things that are above.”]
Since you have been raised with Christ,
seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds at a higher level, on essential things, not on meaningless distractions.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ— who is your life— is revealed,
then you also will be revealed with Christ in glory.
Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is self-centered:
grasping for what is not yours, betraying your true nature,
being controlled by selfish passions and desires and greed
(after all, that is the true nature of idolatry).
God’s fierce desire for our transformation burns in us when we live by these energies.
These are ways we all once followed, when we were living that life.
But now you must get rid of all such things—
anger, wrath, malice, slander, and disrespect.
Be truthful with one another,
seeing that you have stripped off your old self with its practices
and have clothed yourselves with a new self,
which has a whole new frame of mind, reflecting the image of its creator.
In this renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised,
native and immigrant, superior and inferior;
but Christ is all and in all!
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GOSPEL Luke 12.13-21
[Jesus tells a parable of a farmer whose barns are full but whose soul is starving, who is attached to treasures but is not “rich toward God.”]
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But Jesus said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich farmer produced abundantly. And the farmer thought, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops? I know! I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to the farmer, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
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SERMON – One thing
SONG – Seek Ye First – Blue hymnal # 405
THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
SHARING THE PEACE OF CHRIST
__________We Share at Christ’s Table __________
OFFERING OUR GIFTS
* COMMUNION SONG (Tune: All Things Bright and Beautiful)
God, you give us blessings deep, your grace in every thing.
So we bring our gifts in thanks, in love to feast and sing.
You fill our eyes with beauty; you fill our mouths with song.
You give yourself so we may give your love our whole lives long.
God, you give us blessings dear, your grace in every thing.
So we bring our gifts in thanks, in love to feast and sing.
THE GREAT THANKSGIVING
Pastor: May the Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Lift your hearts up to God.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Now let us give our thanks unto the Lord our God.
It is good to give our thanks and praise.
Hosanna on high!
We thank you, God, for you create us,
you claim us, you are faithful to us.
You set us free from all that oppresses,
and call us to end all oppressing.
You walk with us toward a new world of mercy and justice.
Creating God, every seed that grows is your grace,
every child who becomes free is your mercy.
We thank you and with all Creation we sing your praise.
[sung:] Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna on high!
How blessed is the one who comes in your name.
Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna on high!
Blessed are all who come in your name,
and blessed is Jesus, your Christ.
He taught and healed; he fed the hungry and restored the outcast.
He showed us the wonders of your grace,
so, forsaking all others, we might give ourselves to you.
He gave himself completely, dying for his stand for mercy and justice.
But you raised him from the dead, and still he calls us to life.
[The Blessing and Covenant…]
Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”
As often as we break this bread and share this cup
we remember his death and resurrection until he comes again.
Remembering these, your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving
as a living and holy sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of our faith:
[sung]
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
Pour out your holy Spirit on these gifts of food,
that those who receive them may experience your love and grace.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on these gifts of bread and cup,
that they may be for us the body and blood of Christ.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us,
that we may be for the world the Body of Christ,
vessels of your love,
generous with our lives and rich toward you,
for the sake of the wholeness of the world,
in the name and the Spirit of Christ.
[sung]
Amen. Alleluia. Amen. Alleluia.
THE PRAYER OF JESUS
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen.
SHARING THE HOLY MEAL
[Everyone is welcome at the table of Christ’s self-giving love.
The bread is wheat-, soy- and dairy free. We dip the bread in the juice.]
PRAYER OF BLESSING
Gracious God, we thank you for this mystery in which you have given yourself to us. Set our minds on your grace; set our hearts alight with your love; set our lives in your service, for the sake of the wholeness of the world, in the name and Spirit of Christ. Amen.
______We Are Sent in Ministry to the World_____
THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
* SONG – Dear Jesus, in Whose Life I See – Blue hymnal #468
* THE BLESSING AND SENDING FORTH
RESPONSE We stand and sing to our neighbors:
May the grace and peace of Christ be with you my friends.
Go and share the love of God, love that never ends.
POSTLUDE